University of Bath

THURSDAY, March 6, 2025 -- Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) can overestimate glycemic responses, according to a study published online Feb. 26 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . Katie M. Hutchins, from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined glycemic responses to different test foods/beverages using CGM versus capillary sampling among 15 healthy female and male participants (nine and six, respectively). Participants completed seven laboratory visits in a randomized crossover design with washout of ≥48 hours between visits. At each visit, participants consumed an oral carbohydrate challenge composed of either 50 g glucose or equivalent carbohydrate as a whole-fruit, blended-fruit, or commercial fruit smoothie. The researchers found that compared with capillary estimates, CGM-estimated fasting and postprandial glucose concentrations were 0.9±0.6 and 0.9±0.5 mmol/L higher, respectively. There was variation in CGM bias by postprandial test, with the glycemic index for commercial fruit smoothie higher with CGM than capillary (69 versus 53). There was variation by participant in the differences in CGM versus capillary fasting glucose concentrations. Time >7.8 mmol/L was overestimated by about fourfold with CGM in unadjusted analyses; this overestimate was reduced to about twofold after adjustment for baseline differences. "These data demonstrate that a CGM can overestimate postprandial glycemia, and to differing degrees across foods/beverages," the authors write. "Therefore, if accurate quantification of postprandial glycemia is the primary aim, then capillary blood should be the preferred method and CGM may not be suitable, at least with respect to the CGM device tested in the present study." Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical, nutrition, and other industries; the data were supported by an unrestricted grant from Innocent Drinks. Abstract/Full Text Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

TUESDAY, March 4, 2025 -- Continuous blood glucose monitors have been promoted as potentially life-changing for people with diabetes -- allowing real-time updates on blood sugar levels without the need for repeated finger pricks. But a new small-scale study suggests these devices might not be as accurate as many believe, and could lead some to mismanage their diets. Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) appear to overestimate blood sugar levels in healthy adults, according to findings published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . The monitors consistently reported elevated blood sugar levels two to four times more often than finger prick tests, which are the gold standard for blood glucose testing, researchers report. “CGMs are fantastic tools for people with diabetes because even if a measurement isn’t perfectly accurate, it's still better than not having a measurement at all. However, for someone with good glucose control they can be misleading based on their current performance,” senior researcher Javier Gonzalez , a professor of health with the University of Bath in the U.K., said in a news release. “For healthy individuals, relying on CGMs could lead to unnecessary food restrictions or poor dietary choices,” he added. “If you want to assess your blood sugar accurately, traditional methods are still the way to go." Continuous glucose monitors were originally designed to help diabetics manage their blood sugar. However, the devices now are being used by health-conscious folks to help them track how different foods affect blood sugar levels, researchers said in background notes. The monitors track blood sugar levels via a patch slapped onto a person’s arm, and transmit the data to a smartphone, smart watch or other wearable device. For the study, researchers tracked blood sugar levels in 15 healthy volunteers after they drank or ate various fruit-based products, ranging from whole fruit to fruit smoothies. CGMs overestimated the glycemic index hit from a fruit smoothie by 30%, reporting a medium GI of 69 compared to the low GI of 53 shown in a finger prick test, results show. Whole fruits also tended to be misclassified as medium- or high-GI foods by the monitors, while finger prick testing showed they were low GI. This could lead people to avoid whole fruits, in the mistaken belief that they might cause spikes in blood sugar, researchers said. Overall, monitors overestimated people’s time spent above healthy blood sugar levels by nearly 400%, results show. Even after adjusting for other factors, the monitors still overestimated time above healthy blood sugar levels by about two-fold, researchers said. "CGMs may be inaccurate because they measure glucose in the fluid surrounding your cells, not directly in your blood,” Gonzalez concluded. “This can lead to discrepancies due to factors like time delays, blood flow, and how glucose moves between different parts of the body.” The research was funded by innocent drinks , a U.K.-based maker of smoothies. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

TUESDAY, Feb. 25, 2025 (HealthDay news) -- Antidepressants are frequently prescribed to people with dementia for symptoms like anxiety, depression, aggressiveness and sleeplessness. But a specific class of antidepressant medications -- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- actually might speed up brain decline among some dementia patients, a new Swedish study suggests. Heavier doses of certain SSRIs are tied to a higher risk for severe dementia, researchers reported in a new study published Feb. 24 in the journal BMC Medicine . Taking more than the average amount typically prescribed for these drugs was linked to an additional decline of 0.42 points per year in a dementia scale that runs from 0 to 30, researchers found. The SSRI drug escitalopram was associated with the fastest cognitive decline, followed by citalopram and sertraline . Mirtazapine , which works in a different way, had less negative impact on brain function, researchers found. “Depressive symptoms can both worsen cognitive decline and impair quality of life, so it is important to treat them,” said senior investigator Sara Garcia Ptacek , an assistant professor of neurology at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden. “Our results can help doctors and other healthcare professionals choose antidepressants that are better adapted for patients with dementia,” she added in a news release. For the study, researchers tracked the brain health of more than 18,700 patients enlisted in the Swedish Registry for Cognitive/Dementia Disorders between May 2007 and Oct. 2018. The patients’ average age was 78. During an average follow-up of more than four years, about 23% of patients received a new prescription for an antidepressant, researchers said. SSRIs were the most commonly prescribed antidepressant, amounting to 65% of all those prescriptions, the study says. “Higher dispensed doses of SSRIs were associated with higher risk for severe dementia, fractures, and all-cause mortality,” the researchers concluded. “These findings highlight the significance of careful and regular monitoring to assess the risks and benefits of different antidepressants use in patients with dementia.” Faster rates of brain decline were observed among men taking antidepressants compared to women, results also show. However, outside experts warn that caution should be exercised when interpreting these results. “There are some important limitations that should be considered,” Dr. Prasad Nishtala , a reader in life sciences with the University of Bath in the U.K., said in a news release. “One major issue is that the severity of depression in dementia patients wasn't fully accounted for, which has the potential to bias the results,” said Nishtala, who reviewed the findings. “Additionally, there may be a ‘channelling bias,’ meaning that certain antidepressants like citalopram and sertraline might have been more commonly prescribed to patients with severe dementia, which could also bias the results.” He added that the study suggests that SSRIs like citalopram and sertraline might also speed up cognitive decline. "However, it doesn’t explain how or why this happens at a biological level,” Nishtala added. “Because of these limitations, the study's findings should be interpreted with caution and ideally replicated using other real-world data sources.” Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.